Many people lack a factual understanding of events in our region because the media report them inadequately. We blog here because our daughter Malki, murdered at the age of 15 in a restaurant massacre in Jerusalem, was a victim of jihadist hatred and barbarism. For jihadism and terrorism to end in Israel, New York, Madrid, London and everywhere else, people first need to understand the scale on which it is happening and why. This ongoing war is killing us.

Saturday, April 13, 2013

13-Apr-13: Struggling to keep a daughter's memory alive

It has been a
struggle to keep my daughter’s memory alive. Israeli society prefers to forget
terror attacks and forge ahead. Foreign journalists marvel at the haste with
which every trace of carnage left at a site is removed; at the quick return of
traffic and normality. But for 24 hours each year, we lift the lid on our grief
and let the tears flow.

My precious Malki died
at the age of fifteen in the terror attack that has come to symbolize the
Second Intifada: the bombing of the Jerusalem's Sbarro Restaurant in August,
2001. That massacre snuffed out the lives of fifteen Jews, among them eight
children, the youngest of whom was two.

I suggest we focus
this Remembrance Day on the 129 Israeli children killed by Palestinian
terrorists during the past thirteen years. The world is preoccupied with mourning
Palestinian children and has forgotten the atrocities committed against Jewish
children. We must remind them.

Malki left us only
her writings and her art. They offer a glimpse into the soul of a sensitive,
religious, idealistic, artistic and talented Israeli teen.

Malki's diary entry from February 2001

She kept a diary
between September 2000 and June 2001. There, interspersed with long, involved
accounts of school, Ezra (a youth organization in which she was a young leader)
and family activities are the details of each terror attack perpetrated during
those 10 months.

On April 29, she
wrote:

“I woke at 10. Levona and I went
first to R.L. [a teacher] whose mother passed away last week (it is very
sad because she is an only child, unmarried and has no father. She sat shiva
alone!) She was in a very good state. Spoke a lot, told about her mother. Then
we went to the Gerard Behar Center Library. We spent 6 hours there without food
or drink!!! We finished biology. In the evening I went to a lecture given by
Rav Elon with Shulamit, Leah, Efrat Shafir and Chen [her friends]. I didn’t exactly understand the lecture but
it was fun. I met Zvi [her brother] there and we stayed for Arvit. “Sunday
is now completed…”

Then, apparently
later and in a different colored pen, she added:

“Aryeh Hershkowitz, may his death be
avenged, was shot dead a month ago. Now his son was shot dead near Ofra!!! Only
the little brother can say Kaddish.”

On the first page
of her diary is a printed list of personal details: name, address, phone number
and so on. And finally partner’s name. Here Malki wrote:

“Still unknown, but will arrive, G-d
willing, with time.”

We would never
have imagined that our pain could deepen. But one and a half years ago, prime
minster Netanyahu taught us otherwise.

Discarding
reasoned judicial rulings, verdicts and sentences along with his vaunted ideals,
he caved in to Hamas pressure and released hundreds of convicted terrorist
murderers in the Gilad Shalit deal.

He then assured
the public that he had contacted the victims of those evil-doers to explain his
decision, when in fact he had not - and never did.

Malki’s murderer,
Ahlam Tamimi, the self-confessed engineer of the Sbarro bombing, was among
those Palestinian prisoners. Several months after she had walked free, Mr.
Netanyahu inexplicably decided that reuniting Tamimi with her father and
brothers in her hometown, Amman, was not enough. He buckled under again, this
time to the demand of Tamimi’s fiancé, Nazir Al-Tamimi, to be permitted to
enter Jordan in order to marry.

The conditions of Al-Tamimi’s
release had expressly forbidden his exiting the West Bank. But justice no
longer seems to interest our prime minister very much. The evil couple were
married at a well-publicized extravaganza before throngs of Hamas supporters
and are now expecting a baby.

In a 1985 speech before the American Bar
Association, the late Margaret Thatcher said:

“We have behind us many fine declarations and
communiques of good intent. We need action; action to which all countries are
committed until the terrorist knows that he has no haven, no escape. Alas that
is far from true today.”

Here in Israel where the threat of
terrorism is constant, terrorists fear little. In fact, they can be as cocky as
Malki’s murderer: “I do not regret what I did… I will be free again,” she
told interviewers twice during her imprisonment. She knew our prime minister
better than we did.

Let us all resolve today to prevent a
recurrence of the Shalit Deal outrage. State leaders must be compelled to find
other means of resolving crises. They must be reminded of the significance of
justice: murderers belong in prison serving the sentences meted out to them by
our judges and juries – not by our prime ministers.

While we cannot return our murdered
children, we can restore our discarded justice.

Frimet Roth is a freelance writer in
Jerusalem. Her daughter Malki was murdered at the age of 15 in the Sbarro
restaurant bombing (2001). With her husband Arnold. she founded the Malki
Foundation (www.malkifoundation.org); it provides concrete support for Israeli
families of all faiths who care at home for a special-needs child.

1 comment:

We're asking you to help

Click the image for more

Search this blog

About us

THIS ONGOING WAR is not part of the activity of the Malki Foundation which was founded by us, Frimet and Arnold Roth of Jerusalem, on September 9, 2001. But it is inspired by the same tragic circumstances. The Malki Foundation (also known by its Hebrew name: Keren Malki) is a memorial to the life of our daughter, Malki. She's in the photo below this paragraph. Malki was murdered at the age of 15 in a massacre in the centre of Jerusalem carried out by Hamas.

Beyond its function as a remembrance of a beautiful life, the foundation provides tangible, concrete, invaluable support daily to several thousand Israeli families from every part of the religious and socio-economic spectrum: Christian, Moslem, Jewish, Druze and others who care at home for a seriously disabled child.

So Wrong
-
June 28, 2017 At a recent gay-pride march in Chicago, organizers asked a
number of women to leave because they were carrying Jewish Pride flags. The
flag—a...

2 months ago

Good for the soul | The Malki Foundation

If you care to make a positive and constructive contribution to the care of Israeli children with special needs - whether they're Christian, Moslem, Jewish, Druze or unconnected to any particular faith community - you can't do better than direct your donation to the work of the Malki Foundation.

It's the charitable organization we, the bloggers who produce This Ongoing War, established in 2001 in memory of our murdered daughter. Her name is Malki.

Keren Malki (in Hebrew, Keren means 'foundation' or 'fund') is efficient, effective, non-sectarian, non-political and unique in the good work it does. Thousands of families from every part of our richly diverse society here in Israel have benefited in concrete and meaningful ways. Donations to Keren Malki are tax-effective in Israel, Canada, UK and the United States.

Fair use notice

This blog may contain copyrighted material that may not have been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Such material, published without profit, is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues. It is published in accordance with the provisions of Israel's 2007 Copyright Law, the US Copyright Act of 1976, the 2004 Supreme Court of Canada ruling and similar laws in other jurisdictions.

This Ongoing War: About this blog

Many people lack a factual understanding of events in our region because the media often report them inadequately. Our daughter Malki, murdered at the age of 15 in a restaurant massacre in Jerusalem, was a victim of jihadist hatred and barbarism. For jihadism and terrorism to end in Israel, in New York, in Madrid, in London and everywhere else, people first need to understand the scale on which it is happening. This ongoing war is killing us.